Wednesday Writings # 39 - A New Past

Welcome to my weekly "Wednesday Writing" post. These weekly exercises serve as motivation to ensure that I spend at least 30-60 minutes each week doing some creative writing. In the ideal week, I will write every day. But at the very least, I will do at least one writing segment which I will share here on my blog.

I intended the "wednesday writings" to be individual exercises or stories but since April, I have been continuing the same story thread and doing some general free writing using the same characters and continuing the plot. There are some definite continuity issues in the overall course of the story, but I have slowly come upon a cohesive plot (which will require significant editing of earlier editions to make them valid). You can find the entire story by clicking through the following chronological links:

1. Morning Machinations
2. Communication Between Friends
3. Daydreaming Decisions
4. Off to the Park
5. Driven
6. Coming Home
7. Revealing Photographs
8. Just a Dream?
9. At the Tower
10. Caught
11. Revelations
12. Lunchtime
13. The Watch
14. Visions
15. Escape
16. Evan (part 1)
17. Evan (part 2)
18. Evan (part 3)
19. Formulating a Plan
20. Testing the Boxes
21. Betrayal
22. Julie
23. Out of Time
24. A Problem of Paradoxes
25. Taking Charge
26. The Chase Begins
27. Friends Reunited
28. Freedom?
29. Unraveling the Plot
30. Motivation
31. Applying Pressure
32. Parallel Theories
33. The Enemy?
34. You Say We Need a Resolution?
35. Leap of Faith

Almost there...probably one more entry....I'd try and finish tonight, but it's getting late. So this is kind of short. Maybe I'll wrap it up tomorrow. :)

Enjoy.

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A New Past

Gabby felt light headed and dizzy. She reached out to brace herself against something. Anything. Instead, her hand passed through a multi-colored mist. She leaned and tottered, fearing she would fall. Looking around, she realized she was already falling. The world around her was nothing but a swirling of haze and color. Indistinct shapes whisked by at tremendous speeds. Even in her previous passages through time, it hadn't felt as though she were moving this quickly. She tried to focus in and see if she could distinguish any of the shapes. But the more she tried to focus, the more nauseous she felt. Instead, she closed her eyes and waited for the falling to end.

She could feel the air rushing past her and there was a general sense of unbalance. The wind seemed to change direction again and again such that with her eyes closed, Gabby had a hard time telling which direction she was falling. She slowly concentrated on the task at hand, trying to come up with ways to convince Dalton not only that he needed to have his daughter checked for cancer, but also to advise him on methods of treatment. She suddenly realized how crazy the idea sounded. Although, she conceded to herself, it didn't sound any more crazy than the fact that she was right now plummeting backwards five years through time.

She opened her eyes again and stared at the swirling mist around her. What slight objects she'd been able to distinguish earlier were now a complete blur of color and movement. Everything seemed to be flying by even faster than before. The air roared by faster and faster, pressing hard against her face. Gabby had a hard time getting a complete breath. She gasped and strained to breath against the force of the wind around her. As she strained to breathe, panic overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing. To find a calm spot amid the storm around her. Instead, she began to hyperventilate. She grew more and more light headed. And then, everything went black.



Gabby slumped into consciousness, aware of a soft rustling breeze blowing against her gently and the feel of solid earth beneath her body. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself lying spread out on a rock cragged patch of dirt and weeds. Nauseau threatened to press back up her throat. She closed her eyes again and took a few solid deep breaths before opening them and pushing herself to her feet. It was night but a large full moon in the sky and the hint of a rising sun at the edges of the mountains gave enough light to help her survey her surroundings. A large empty field, spotted with rocks, dying patches of grass, and the occassional piles of half melted snow. Gabby folded her arms around and rubbed her bare arms with her hands. Strangely, she didn't feel cold in spite of the cool night air blowing softly around her.

She stared into the distance, trying to determine where she was exactly. The sun slowly peaked over the mountain peaks to the East. Looking to the South and the West, a small forest started up a few hundred feet away. Behind her, to the North, a couple of homes sprouted up a few hundred yards away. As the light grew over the mountains, the landscape grew more familiar. Gabby started walking South into the forest which, in a few years, would stand on the front lawn of Dalton's not-yet-built sprawling mansion. As she reached the edge of the forest, she took another look back at the barren field. It would have been so much easier if there had been a car parked nearby. Instead, she now had to walk back to town. She turned into the trees and pressed at a low hanging branch to enter the woods.

The branch didn't move. She pressed harder. It didn't look that strong, but it still hung still in the air. She crouched under the branch and continued into the darkness of the trees. Another small branch hung across the makeshift path in front of her. She pressed against it and it too failed to move. Confused, she stood and stared at the branch. It stared back at her, dry, barren and thin, less than an inch in diameter. Slowly she reached her hand out to a small twig protruding near the end of the branch. She pinched the twig between her thumb and forefinger and twisted. Instead of snapping off the branch, it burned hard against her fingers and remained still. Finally, she pressed her whole body against the skinny branch and leaned forward. It held her up as sturdily as if it were a solid brick wall.

Gabby looked down at the box she held loosely in her left hand. Bringing it up, she examined the dials and switches and realized she had come back in Observation Mode. She was here as a wraith, merely watching the comings and goings of life. She reached out to press the button and return back to her normal time, then decided she may as well take a look around while she was there.

Unsure where to go first, she closed her eyes and let her mind wander. Her first thought was of Evan as she had seen him moments before, running down the hall, his arms outstretched to stop her from coming back through time. She smiled at the worry painted on his face, the concern in his shouts for her to stop. As she thought of him, she felt a shifting in her surroundings and opened her eyes again. She was in a small apartment. Evan sat at a small kitchen table eating a bold of cereal and reading over a large textbook of some kind. His hair was disheveled and small whiskers grew sporadically around his jawline. She smiled at him, comforted by his presence. Then, deciding that Evan wasn't her real purpose in being here, she cleared her throat and started to think about Dalton.

As she did so, Evan set down his spoon and looked across the kitchen. His bleary eyes grew suddenly bright. He squinted then stood slowly. Gabby forgot about Dalton when she realized Evan was staring at her.

"Who's there?"